


Build

by PumpkinPatch



Category: Balto (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Oneshot, Post-Canon, Wordcount: 100-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-06 19:12:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18857320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PumpkinPatch/pseuds/PumpkinPatch





	Build

It's late. He thinks, watching the sky turn darker than holes in the ice. Pitch black with punched specks of white. His rabbit is eaten quickly. A second brought in. She's not hungry, so he discards it past her. When she wants it, it will be hers, but until then, it's in the way anywhere else.

With a sharp cry and a yelp, the birthing process begins, leaving Steele to pace. Everything has to go right, everything has to go perfect. He's so tangled up in the many ideas he has to barely notice the passage of time.

He wants a long lineage of the strongest kids, perfect kids. Kids who can outpace, outsmart, and outdo anyone who challenges them. With muscles, teeth, fangs, claws. He wants powerful young who can take on bears if they work together.

He desires power, strong young mean strong kids. Strong kids mean a stronger future. Strong kids mean one day, strong grandkids. Steele desires the strongest of all. With white fangs, black claws, and muscles. 

He cannot wait to watch them move, watch them kick and fight among themselves. To see the strong ones grow. Who is he kidding? They'll all be strong! They're his kids!

How lucky he is, most dogs are never there to see their young born. To even _know_ they have young. He is doing both. Being better, stronger, a true dog of power. A future influence to his pups.

He steps back, then forward, feeling tendons tense up with an excitement he once felt before when he was a sled dog. Before he'd found the wild and better things. A larger area to roam. Freedom, nature, the hunt, the fight. Being better than a leash licking fool to humans who could not appreciate him for who he was.

“Are they born yet?” Harsh, inquisitive, his tone softens only at the edges.

Her blue eyes are half lidded, breath shaking her chest as she gulps air down. There is a stench of blood, some of which stains her mouth and the floor. “Yes.”

He moves to inspect them. Each are perfect. Brown and black with eyes tightly shut. Grey or tan with tiny stump tails and wiggling noses. His chest inflates with pride. “Perfect.”

“I agree.” She's tired. 

He moves to support her head, if only so they can talk. Claws clacking wood floorboards and body shielding his pups from the cold. They are his. She is his. He will protect them, and teach her better hunting, and teach them to hunt one day. He's made it his job to keep them and protect them.

He will be perfect for her, perfect for them, and they will be perfect for him. They already are, but he wants them to survive, to outlast everyone. To never be dropped by humans or anyone else. To never lose fights. 

“Sleep. I'll keep watch.”

So she does.

Steele marvels in them all. Wolf and dog together making strong builds and interesting patterns on fur. They'll be built to fight, to hunt, to be a strong pack. He'll find himself the leader of that pack, with more loyalty than any dog has ever shown him.

Perfect.


End file.
